By Liam Cook

Crossing the white line on five separate occasions, whoever wrote the script for Sebastian Hanna’s Brothers’ debut was feeling generous.

While most of his tries came through support play, the winger admits scoring a handful of times for his new club wasn’t exactly what he had anticipated in his first outing.

“Bit of a surprise start for my first game at Brothers, I definitely didn’t expect it,” Hanna told Rugby News.

The former Souths’ outside back well and truly hit the ground running, his first five pointer coming within as many minutes.

Scurrying on to an errant Sunnybank pass, Hanna put on the afterburners from his defensive twenty-two and was untouched on his way to the line.

“I don’t know if I’ve got a favourite try, but the first one was early in the game and a fair distance of the field to score,” he said.

Nine fresh faces graced Biggs Field for Brothers on Saturday afternoon.

With a bye in round one, the second week of competition was the club’s first chance to blood new talent and recruits.

“To do that with a lot of other blokes made it easier as well.”

“A new-look kind of team for Brothers, which I’m really excited to be a part of.”

A Magpie for his first years of premier grade, Hanna has relished the change of environment.

Joining prior to the 2023 season, the no.11 is establishing himself amidst a backline chock full of talent and experience.

“The backline on the weekend was pretty special to be a part of. Blokes like Michael Bond, Paddy James, Lawson Creighton from the Reds… I feel pretty lucky to play outside them.”

“It creates a strong group when you’ve got faces who have been there for a while and then bring new voices in.”

This week marks the first home game of Brothers’ season, a milestone Hanna looks forward to ticking off.

Rather than being at the mercy of the Butchery, the new recruit is thankful to now have Crosby Park on his side.

“When I turned up to Brothers, the director of rugby and coaches made very clear that the game I’ll look forward to the most is playing with a home crowd and getting to enjoy all that comes with that.”

“Being in the visitors dressing room is a certain experience, but I’m now looking forward to having it as my home ground.”